Although it will be several weeks before we get to hear the crack of the bat from the professional baseball players returning to Spring Training, Southern Tier youths can have a similar experience at a winter camp held at Binghamton University.

The Crack of the Bat 13th Annual Winter Baseball Camps were started by then-BU assistant coach Mike Collins, who is now the head baseball coach at Bloomsburg University.

Ryan Hurba took over the program in 2006 after being named Binghamton's hitting coach and recruiting coordinator. His experience includes being the head coach of the Sho-Me Baseball Camp in Branson, Mo., which is one of the oldest baseball schools in the country.

"Camp is kind of in my DNA, so this is my time of year," Hurba said. "This is almost therapeutic for me. I love working with the little guys so much."

Hurba teams with BU pitching coach Dan Jurik, as well as current and former college and high school players from the area, to run camps in the winter and summer. Players from ages 7 to 18 can participate in a hitting camp with Hurba, a pitching camp with Jurik, or both. Camps run throughout January, with the final one taking place today through Thursday.

The hitting portion of the camp includes a "classroom setting," in which coaches talk about and demonstrate components of the swing. Players then practice those components, either off a tee or in front flips (underhand tosses from a pitcher 12 to 15 feet away). Hurba also has a station devoted to teaching players how to bunt, since he believes that is an overlooked part of the game at the higher levels.

One of the former players Hurba relies on is Tom Baileys, an Owego graduate who played two years at Broome Community College before coming to BU. This is his seventh year working with the Crack of the Bat camps.

"Coach (Hurba) leans on me a little more. I run a little bit more with the older kids and take a leadership role," Baileys said. "Where the players give more of a demonstration, I will talk about the instruction."

Hurba described the pitching camps as "very progressive," and areas of instruction include body movement, balance, mechanics, arm strength and pitch placement. He wants to make both camps as close to what they will need to learn in order to help students prosper at the high school and college levels.

"We treat it how our players treat the offseason," Hurba said. "I'm teaching them the same drills we teach our guys. I just have less time to work with these players."

One of the most important facets of running a sports camp is keeping things interesting and fun in order to maintain participants' attention. Not only do the campers emulate Hurba's attitude, but the other coaches do as well.

"It really is just his passion and energy, and the love of the game," Baileys said, when asked what makes Hurba so successful with the camps. "He gets them excited to want to be there, and that's the biggest thing that I feed off of."

Another thing that brings kids back year after year is their relationship with the players, which Hurba says he stresses when he asks players to become instructors.

"My goal is to surround (the campers) with good role models," he said. "If we can put these kids around good people, they will see that they make good decisions, and it will really help the kids out."

Finally, the camp works because parents feel safe and comfortable with the environment in which their children are being instructed. Hurba is joined by his father in running the camp in the summer, and one of his goals is to make sure the game continues to the next generation.

"Our purpose is to keep baseball at a place in these young people's minds to keep it fun and keep them excited about it," he said. "If all those things come into place, when we hit the field and start to teach them, they will be more receptive to it."

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